Friday, August 28, 2009

Anchor Bock Beer

Beer Pairings have become the new cool thing. What food goes well with a particular beer or beer style, and vice versa. While I certainly can appreciate when a beer matches well with food, I have convinced myself that recently the push in this pairing trend has gone overboard. It's everywhere! Between pairings and being limited seasonally to certain styles of beer, I'm going to scream. So let's hope it's a fad, and people return to pairing beer with another beer. If you stumbled onto this site actually looking for beer with food pairings, well, I hope you are at least getting some entertainment. And I've included some links below to a few books on the subject, if you're still interested.

So, in honor of the hope of the death of so much beer pairing buzz, here are my beer pairings. They have nothing to do with food, but rather which beer names I think are opposite enough to be paired together to do battle with one another. They also have nothing to do with the beer styles, either, although I may use those (and my personal preferences) to help in my rationale for picking the winner. (Hey, it's my site!) So here we go, with a small bracket of eight contenders...

Stone Arrogant Bastard Ale v. Great Divide Saint Bridget's Porter
And this is how the tourney played out, of course with some commentary. Salvation whipped Messiah Bold. Come on, I had to pick the Christian choice. Blithering Idiot was on his home turf and pulled out a squeaker against Shakespeare Stout. Shakespeare either wasn't on his game or really isn't as smart as he's cracked up to be. The Three Philosophers just told some blonde jokes and easily beat Sweaty Betty. She didn't really care, though, as she was late for a date. The Arrogant Bastard and Saint Bridget went into overtime at which point the fans got tired of AB's attitude. Things started to get ugly, which was when Saint Bridget summoned a lightning bolt and had him struck dead, winning by default.

The four winners then went home to train for their second-round matchups, which the commissioner is still working on scheduling. Enough of this for today. It's Friday and now time for a real beer pairing, Anchor Bock Beer with my hand and lips. Anchor Bock is brewed by Anchor Brewing Company in San Francisco, California. I'm very fond of this brewery and most of their beers.

There is a nice sweet caramel, raisiny, malty aroma, with some light hops noticeable, too. The flavors start out slightly sweet with some chocolate, caramel and a solid maltiness as well. Some dark fruit, coffee and roasted flavors are also in the mix. Those initial flavors are balanced out nicely by some hops, giving this beer a nice crisp finish. Medium carbonation and medium body help make a very smooth drinker. Probably not my favorite from Anchor, but another decent example from them. Try some.